Archive - News Article
May 18th, 2013
WOONSOCKET – The city could become the fourth community in the state to ban smoking in public parks and recreation areas under an ordinance up for consideration by the City Council on Monday.
If passed, it would follow Central Falls, Warren and West Warwick in prohibiting smokers from lighting up outdoors.
Cumberland passed a non-binding ordinance to ban smoking in parks in 2009 but it’s not illegal for people to smoke outdoors.
PAWTUCKET—Despite the sight of flashing lights, firetrucks, and American Red Cross volunteers at Fogarty Manor on Friday morning, there was no cause for alarm. The city-owned high-rise was the scene of a “mock disaster” drill designed to provide training in evacuation protocol for a multi-unit building of this type.
May 16th
PAWTUCKET — Last month, school administrators expressed optimism about the proposed school budget for fiscal year 2014, citing an anticipated increase in state aid and expected funding from the city. However, due to the city administration's apparent decision to not provide $511,463 as part of “maintenance of effort” and other adjustments requested by the School Committee, the latest draft is looking decidedly less rosy.
The Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island assistance program for the state’s elderly residents hit another milestone Wednesday — serving its 17 millionth meal to Clara Ramos, 80, of Providence.
The highlight meal, this year served by Gov. Lincoln Chafee, is one of a long list of such events marking the work put in by the organization’s volunteers since the 1970s. That work has not only helped elderly residents maintain their nutritional health but also their independence and ability to remain at home.
May 15th
PROVIDENCE – Depending on who you listened to at the House Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, payday lenders are either providers of quick and convenient cash loans for regular folks in temporary financial straits or they are “predators,” “vampires,” “monsters” and “leeches” conniving to trap poor people in an inescapable cycle of debt at “usurious” interest rates.
May 14th
PAWTUCKET — Despite acknowledgments that it’s not an ideal situation, the Schools Superintendent intends to proceed with plans to move a majority of the incoming 6th graders to Goff or Slater junior high schools in September to deal with overcrowding.
PAWTUCKET – Elizabeth J. “Betty” Johnson has been gone three years now but the 85-year-old’s love of local history is still paying dividends for the city she devoted so much energy toward.
Her carefully organized notes, clippings, photographs and Pawtucket memorabilia — previously kept in her longtime home at 30 Fruit Street — have been moved into the archives of the Pawtucket Public Library where they can be accessed by researchers wishing to delve into local lore.
May 13th
EAST PROVIDENCE — An empty lot on Newport Avenue, used mostly as overflow parking for Uncle Tony's Pizza and Pasta restaurant, is serving up some fascinating pieces of history as part of an archaeological dig.
It seems that the front portion of the lot, situated between New Road and Moore Street, was once the East Providence Cemetery. While the burial ground has long been closed and the coffins removed and interred elsewhere, the current owners of the commercially zoned property want to make sure that no remains were left behind.
May 12th
WOONSOCKET – A North Kingstown lawmaker is threatening to rally a boycott of Sovereign Bank if she finds out the bank closed its accounts with a local firearms dealer for political reasons.
“If I find out this is true I’m going to close my account with Sovereign Bank and recommend all the Second Amendment people in Rhode Island do the same,” State Rep. Doreen Costa (R-Dist. 31) told The Call. “Banks shouldn’t be choosing their customers because they’re in a certain kind of business. That’s just stupid.”
LINCOLN – Local voters will get the chance to offer their say on a proposed $76,138,712 town budget for 2013-14 when the Financial Town Meeting gets under way in Lincoln High School tonight beginning at 7 o’clock.
May 11th
Michelle Decelles always knew Mother’s Day to be a big day at the Coachmen’s Lodge Restaurant she and her husband, Norman, run at 273 Wrentham Road in Bellingham.
It was a big day for the restaurant but Decelles never fully understood why people wanted to take their Mom’s out on that day until she became a Mom six years ago.
“I don’t think I realized what motherhood really was until I became a mother myself,” she said while working at the restaurant this week.
CENTRAL FALLS — A bomb threat involving Central Falls City Hall prompted an evacuation of employees and tied up traffic along Dexter Street and the surrounding area for more than two hours on Friday morning.
The threat proved to be unfounded and Police Chief James Mendonca gave the “all clear” at around 12:15 p.m. after the Rhode Island State Police Bomb Squad declared the building safe. Two police dogs, trained to detect explosive devices, were used to search the facility and no evidence of any bomb was found.
May 9th
FOSTER – Anthony Manzo is seated in a vintage leather barber chair with his muscular right arm extended in front of him as tattoo artist Robert Young prepares to go in.
Clean-cut and bookish-looking in his thick-rimmed eyeglasses, Young gives off the demeanor of a doctor as he pauses for a moment, studying Manzo’s arm with quiet intensity. Young’s hands are covered in black rubber gloves, one of which is holding aloft a metallic device that looks like some sort of oversized hypodermic.
PAWTUCKET—The owner of a former nightclub at 242 Middle St. was denied a request for a liquor license to re-open based on the club's troubled past and objections from neighbors.
On Wednesday, the City Council's Board of License Commissioners voted 8 to 0 to deny a request by Robert L. Thibeault to obtain a liquor license for Club Macundo. At a public hearing, he told the council that he has had trouble keeping tenants in the commercial building, and he wants to re-open as a club to help pay his taxes.
May 8th
LINCOLN—A lunch of Del's Lemonade, chowder and clamcakes, hot wieners and Autocrat coffee milk already had guests smiling, and when Viola Davis took to the stage, it was a celebration of yet another classic product of Rhode Island.
The award-winning actress was in her home state on Wednesday to attend the 28th annual Rhode Island Tourism Unity Luncheon at the Twin River Event Center. Davis spoke at the event, and received the Rhode Island “Making a Difference” Award for her contribution to art and culture tourism in the state.
May 7th
PROVIDENCE – The cost of getting married in Rhode Island could triple soon.
Pawtucket Rep. Elaine Coderre has introduced legislation that would add a $46 surcharge to the fee for a marriage license to pay for domestic violence prevention.
That would hike the cost of a license – which is currently $24 – to $70.
Of the additional $46, $44 would go to the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV) to operate the prevention programs and $2 would be kept by the city or town issuing the license.
PAWTUCKET – The Slater Mill Museum historic site on the Blackstone River can teach visitors plenty about how cotton is spun into thread and eventually clothing.
But the museum also tells the story of life in the Blackstone Valley before Samuel Slater opened his mill, sparking the American Industrial Revolution; the details can be found in the heritage plants and flowers growing in the garden.
May 6th
EAST PROVIDENCE — The City Council will hold a public hearing tonight to give residents and local profit and non-profit agencies the chance to offer input on the funding requests proposed in city's 2013-2014 Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application.
This year, the city is applying for $620,675 in grant funding for local community development and housing needs, which will be available for programming during the fiscal year that begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2014.
The council's meeting begins at 7:30 at City Hall, 145 Taunton Ave.
LINCOLN – It could be upwards of a month before residents are able to move back into a Front Street triple-decker that was heavily damaged by fire Sunday night, fire officials said yesterday.
Lonsdale Fire Chief Timothy Griffin said the 263 Front St. building sustained $75,000 to $100,000 in damages and that extensive repairs will be required before the seven tenants left homeless by the blaze are allowed back in.
All of the tenants are reportedly staying with family members, he said.
May 5th
CENTRAL FALLS — With the recent Boston Marathon bombing tragedy, much attention has been paid to the “first responders” who sprang into action to aid the injured. However, since last March and long before all the media attention, 18 Central Falls High School students were quietly meeting after school to learn how to be emergency responders, and their hard work and dedication has paid off.
